GIVING

 

Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him… I Corinthians 16:2 (KJV)

In a meeting the other day, we were discussing funding for certain of our ministries and the need for economy. Someone piped up with, “If everyone tithed, we’d have enough for all the ministries.” That wasn’t exactly a revelation, but we all moaned in agreement.

Statistically speaking, “Tithers make up only 10-25 percent of a normal congregation. Only 5 percent of the U.S. tithes, with 80 percent of Americans only giving 2 percent of their income” (relevantmagazine.com). There are reasons people give for not tithing, but it all boils down to relationship—relationship with God.

You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. And actually, tithing is not a gift. A tithe is just a basic payment in recognition of God’s generosity. A tithe is a payment; anything above the 10 percent mark becomes a gift. With all that God has given us, how can we fail to recognize his generosity by our giving in return? “Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand” (I Chron. 29:14 NIV).

Do we foolishly think we can out-give God? Will our faithful stewardship cause us to suffer financially? In response to that, God challenges us, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it” (Mal. 3:10). He promises blessing in response to obedience. But we don’t obey to be blessed; we obey out of love.

Perhaps you’re thinking, this is old stuff. I already tithe and don’t need any reminders. So, what about becoming a giver and moving to another level? In Freedom of Simplicity, Richard J. Foster suggests practices such as simplifying our lives by giving away all the extraneous things we tend to warehouse just because they might someday be needed. He cuts even deeper proposing that we begin giving away (all or in part) monies that we weren’t expecting, such as tax refunds or inheritances or rebates, those unexpected windfalls. And there are even more ideas in Freedom…

Foster’s thoughts could be considered radical, but considering all God’s marvelous abundance with which we are constantly and consistently blessed, our giving back is nothing. Think about your giving as an index of your relationship with Jesus.

 

Lord, we cannot begin to express our gratitude for you and your ongoing kindness, love, and mercy. Work in us a heart of thanksgiving so that we willing let go of more and more of those things with which you have blessed us. And let our joy abound. In Jesus’ name. AMEN.

TOO MUCH

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Matthew 6:19-21 (KJV)

 

On his latest visit, my Ethiopian friend Getch was confounded by the proliferation of “storage units” throughout our city. “Whatever are they for?” he wondered. It was difficult for me to explain that Americans have so much stuff that they have to rent additional space to warehouse it. In the whole continent of Africa where most people are happy just to have daily food for their families, the idea of excess was incomprehensible to Getch. And it was a little difficult for me to justify the situation.
In the Bible Jesus is approached by a man who wants him to convince his brother to divide an inheritance. Rather than side with the offended man, Jesus says that life doesn’t consist of lots of things (not what the brother wanted to hear). Jesus goes on to tell the story of the rich man whose harvest was so great, his barns couldn’t hold everything. Instead of opening the barn doors and inviting the poor and needy to help themselves, the rich man decided to tear down the structures and build larger barns so that he could sit back and enjoy his wealth. Jesus calls him a fool. Life isn’t about things.
Have you ever wrecked your dream car? Or had moths eat holes into an expensive Oriental rug? Or had someone accidently break a treasured piece of porcelain? Or even lost a valued possession? Life isn’t about things.
I heard a noted Bible scholar say once that abundance is having enough for the needs of you and your family with something left to share. That’s what those charity bags are all about. This is a great time of the year to open up the barns and pull out everything we don’t need or use. And it’s a good time to open our hearts to see if we’re holding things or if they’re holding us.
What about conducting a little test? Can we readily open up the closets and cupboards and take out those spare items that we’re storing for that rainy day? Things that we might need some year way down the line? What would happen if we all radically began to give generously, even sacrificially? Let’s get our bags out today and see. It IS more blessed to give than to receive.

 

Father, we are so blessed that sometimes it’s hard for us to let go. Fill us with such gratitude that we joyously open our hearts and hands to those in need—just as you did and do with us. In Jesus’ name. AMEN.

 

THE SOUND OF SILENCE

Be still and know that I am God.  Psalm 46:10.

 

At the last school assembly of the year with all the visiting parents and grandparents in attendance, our headmaster loved to say, “Allow your children to be bored.  Let them go outside and lie on the grass and look up at the sky and listen to the birds and the insects.  Don’t plan every moment of their summer.”  I’ve been thinking of that recently as I’ve looked at all the ways I keep myself from being bored.

Like everyone else, I spend a lot of my time waiting.  Waiting in line; waiting in doctor’s offices; waiting to get my oil changed.  Just waiting.  It used to be that I would look around at other people and imagine their circumstances and sometimes pray for them.  There was always something interesting happening around me because I entered into the present and became engaged.

I suddenly realized over the weekend that when everything stops, I pull out my IPhone to see if I have any messages.  I check FaceBook for new entries.  Has someone posted on Instagram?  Is there an update on the News bureaus?  Does Marco Polo have something?  And if I’ve already done that, there are games I can play.  I like Spider Solitaire and plain old Solitaire.  My IPhone does not allow me to be bored.  Or to be quiet.

There are so many messages in my head in response to what’s been sent to me or news items that disturb me.  I’m frustrated that I’m having a losing streak with Spider Solitaire.  I’m reflecting on work challenges that were revealed in weekend emails.  I don’t have time to be bored.  And how can I possibly be quiet?

How can I hear what God wants to say to me when I am able—all by myself—to be stimulated or frustrated or entertained with that little electronic rectangle I keep in my pocket?  I’ve come up with a brilliant solution, and so far, it’s working:  FAST.  Yes, fasting from all electronics that are not mandatory for family relationships and work.  I’m trying it cold turkey, and it’s rather nice.

Obviously, I’m speaking in hyperbole, but I’ve been observing how electronics can bless or curse us.  I don’t want the Voice I most need to hear and observe to be obscured because I’ve forgotten how to be still.  So for now, I’ve called a fast.

 

Father, above all things we need to hear you.  Show us what to do to ensure that we never miss a word from you.  In Jesus’ name.  AMEN.

JESUS DIDN’T MEAN IT

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  Matthew 5:17  (NIV)

 

Just like Moses, Jesus went up on the mountain to talk with his followers about the new rule God was establishing in his Kingdom.  His antagonists, the Pharisees (and the scribes and the Sadducees) had accused him repeatedly of attempting to do away with the Law that had governed them for thousands of years.  But actually, by the time of Jesus’ ministry, the Law of Moses had been so compromised by the religionists that it had little semblance to what God had intended.

For example, Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy’” (Matt. 5:43).  This is a far cry from the original (Lev. 19:18), “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.”  Nothing is said about hating our enemy but rather that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. 

The Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 5-7 is a study in what we are to be and how we are to live as citizens of God’s Kingdom.  It says bizarre things to us, things that as rational people we find totally impossible to perform.  We’re blessed when we are poor in spirit, when we are sorrowful, when we are humble, when we are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, when we’re merciful, and when our hearts are pure.  We’re even blessed when we’re persecuted for righteousness’ sake.  And that’s only the beginning.

All these characteristics are antithetical to our cultural teachings.  And yet Jesus is the one who is speaking.  There’s got to be something beyond the superficial here OR Jesus just didn’t mean what he said.  He was merely speaking in hyperbole to get our attention.  And surely he accomplished his goal.  And so we, too, compromise the message saying it was only for a specific group of people or a specific time.  It’s too biting for US.

Oswald Chambers notes that Jesus has called us to live a life we cannot live and to do what we cannot do, and yet WE CAN do what he’s called us to do and to live as he’s asked us—through the power of his Holy Spirit.  This is how we move into life in the Kingdom of God that Jesus described as abundant life.  That’s what I want—all God has to offer.

Throughout the fall I’ll be studying and blogging about the Sermon on the Mount and Life in the Kingdom.  I hope you’ll join me.

 

Father, you offer so much, and we often take so little.  Give us a hunger and thirst for you and your righteousness, for you long to fill us.  In Jesus’ name.  AMEN.

EXCEEDING ABUNDANCE

 [He] is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us…  Ephesians 3:20  (KJV)

 

Our World Mission Department is rarely stumped with the requests that come from our international partners, so when Mama Phoebe asked about wedding dresses, Betty didn’t hesitate.  “When our girls in Uganda get married, they like to have white dresses, but they’re very expensive for us.  Can you help?” Phoebe asked.

Immediately upon her return from overseas, Betty went from store to store pricing dresses that we could deliver to the hopeful brides.  It didn’t take much shopping for her to realize that purchasing just a few dresses would totally exhaust our annual budget.  So Betty did what we always do when a problem seems to have no solution—she prayed.  “Lord,” Betty prayed, “there’s no way we can afford these dresses, but you told us to ask, and so I’m asking for your supply.”

Within a few days, Betty got a call regarding a parishioner who wanted to close her bridal salon and wanted to give away the merchandise.  Were we interested?  She was astonished but responded in the affirmative.  And within the week our maintenance director called Betty to come down to the loading dock where a sixteen-wheeler was unloading its cargo:  numerous bridal gowns, shoes, veils, prayer books, bridesmaid and mother of the bride and groom dresses—everything and more than she had ever asked.  In fact, after sorting out all the bounty, our Ugandan friends AND our Mexican friends were able to open up their own bridal salons, and a church on the Border was able to purchase a van with the funds they made by selling unneeded wedding items.

Anytime we begin to think in our ministry (or our personal lives) that the need is too great or that it would be presumptuous to ask God to answer a particular request, we remind each other of the Wedding Dresses.  We might have thought it was frivolous—for God it was a way to demonstrate his love and his abundance.

You have not for you ask not (James 4:3).

 

Father, thank you that you love to pour out your blessings on your undeserving servants.  Give us great faith to ask great things that you may be glorified.  In Jesus’ name.  AMEN.

THERE’S ALWAYS MORE

 

I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly.  John 10:10  (KJV)

 

 

I just read about a lady who was known for her extraordinary Christian maturity.  One day her pastor asked her to preach the Sunday sermon believing that her experience would be instructive to the congregation.  On the Sunday when the lady rose to speak, her sermon was short and sweet.  “Dear Friends,” she began, “there’s always more.”  And with that, she sat down.

Just begin to ponder that simple message:  there’s always more.  The God of the Infinite, the one who promised to meet all our needs, the Alpha (beginning) and the Omega (ending), the great Creator never operates in scarcity.  He never runs out of any resource—of love, of grace, of mercy, of patience, of whatever we need.  And there’s no end to the delights of knowing him.

Think of what this means in your present circumstance.  As a parent, spouse, friend, employer:  there’s more wisdom, there’s more understanding, there are more ideas, there’s more love…  As an intellectual:  there’s more to contemplate, there’s more to learn, there’s more to investigate, there’s more for growth…   As a leader:  there’s more direction, there’s more discernment, there are more resources, there’s more creativity…  As a disciple:  there’s more to discover, there’s more to obey, there’s more to abandon, there’s more to enjoy…  We could fill in the blanks indefinitely.  Suffice it to say, that in Christ, there is abundance.

Lest we consider God as having limited resources, just look at his provision for the Children of Israel in the wilderness; for Elijah in hiding; for Ruth in Bethlehem; for David in his wanderings; for Israel in exile; for feeding the four thousand and five thousand; for rescuing you and me; and for the times he is always there for his people.  His hand is not shortened that he cannot save nor is he deaf that he cannot hear our prayers (Isaiah 59:1).

We sometimes treat our spiritual beings as add-ons.  They’re peripheral to our real lives.  But Jesus says I’ve come to give you abundant life, more than we’re currently experiencing.  If we’re not living in abundance, there’s more.  God has more for us than we can think or imagine and waits for us to move beyond our impoverished selfishness into his endless provision of more.  Wherever we find ourselves, there’s always more.  Dare we take the challenge?

 

Father, charge our spiritual imaginations that we reach out in faith to you to receive more from your goodness.  Move us beyond our spiritual poverty into the richness we have in Christ Jesus.  Gratefully, we pray in Jesus’ name.  AMEN.